NEW YORK—The NHL playoffs are deep into the crushing howl, with hair-pulling goons, cheap shots and suspensions claiming top bill, and on the edge of this madness skates a greenhorn trying to find his place.

Before he was quickly summoned to take the spot of one of those bad-boy suspension cases, Chris Kreider was something of a legend. Pretty much anytime he glided atop the ice he shone brighter than those around him, dating all the way back to his days as a Townie where he learned to figure skate with his mother and aunt in Boston’s rough-and-tumble Charlestown.

He won most everything by the age of 20: two NCAA titles with Boston College; three straight Beanpot Tournaments (which in Boston are coveted as much or more than any other crown); a gold medal and then a bronze while representing the U.S. in the World Junior Championships.

For ages Kreider’s been following the gritty New England lines carved by the likes of Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin and Jim Craig. Selected by the Rangers in the first round of the 2009 NHL Draft, Kreider’s still considered a can’t-miss prospect, but he’s been tossed into waters raging with nasty undertows, and thus far it’s all he can do to paddle furiously in place.

“It’s been a big change but I’m learning to adapt,” Kreider was saying as the Rangers practiced following a day off to mend their bodies and clear their heads after four confounding, exhilarating first-round playoff games against the Ottawa Senators.

Game 5 is here Saturday night, a pivotal match in a series knotted at two games apiece that should turn the Garden into a roaring zoo. It’ll also go far in showing whether the Rangers will rocket out of their funk, or if Ottawa can continue zipping untouched through New York’s zone. The Rangers haven’t trailed in regulation, not for one tiny second, but they’ve also suffered two heartbreaking overtime losses that can deflate even the sturdiest of teams.

Called to plug the hole created by Carl Hagelin’s three-game suspension for an elbow to the head of Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, Kreider skated on the left wing with the first line in his debut last Monday (a Ranger win in Ottawa where he whiffed on a backhand shot in front of a wide-open net and admittedly was as nervous as a cornered skunk), saw only a scant 3:29 minutes in the Game 4 overtime loss and isn’t quite sure of the role that awaits.

Playoff hockey is hardly the time for a rookie fresh off the college circuit to cut his teeth. But when the Rangers lost Hagelin, a player with a rare tenacity to stalk the puck, Kreider was the best option available to coach John Tortorella. After Kreider’s insertion next to Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards fizzled, Tortorella separated Richards and Gaborik during Game 4 and had them skating on different lines Friday.

"Our top guys, just like everybody, want to be our top guys," Tortorella said cryptically when asked about the changes. The Rangers have lost their last seven overtime playoff games, dating back to 2007, but with the news coming that Alfredsson remained in Ottawa, dealing with symptoms of his concussion, the Blueshirts mustn't waste the opportunity to find chemistry that sticks.

The pesky Brian Boyle can’t be the only Ranger with the magic touch. Goalie Henrik Lundqvist can’t keep doing gymnastics while his teammates get outmuscled against the boards and in the shadows. Ottawa has shredded its reputation as a team prone to collapsing like a cheap umbrella, while Rangers’ fans now gnaw at raw nerves.

So much of the season had a 1994 feel about it. The Blueshirts had the best record in their conference, smart minds in Vegas picked them as the second favorites, after Pittsburgh, to win the Cup—smart minds in Vegas proving again that sometimes they should be ignored—and now the Rangers are teetering in what’s become a best-of-three series.

Kreider was reared on lore from another Garden—the one on Causeway Street—but this Boston kid is eager to soak in the lunacy that descends on the corner of 33rd and Potvin (stinks) whenever the Rangers appear. He’s built like Tim Tebow, 230 pounds of grit forever ready to leap into the mix. And like Tebow, Kreider possesses the same intense eagerness to step into Broadway’s dazzling lights and give the metropolis what it craves.

“Pressure-filled games are the greatest. I imagine in New York they go to a different level,” said Kreider, his Boston accent seeping through the gaps.

Barely two weeks ago, Kreider was thick in the celebration of Boston College’s Division I national title—the Eagles’ third in five seasons—in a year that ended with 19 straight victories. But he chose to forgo his senior season in Chestnut Hill, opting instead to take to the Rangers his blend of heady athleticism and sharp ability to create separation through pure will.

He was all nervous energy at first, reminding himself to “move those feet” and admittedly gassed after shifts that seemed like full-on sprints. “So different in college,” he said. “There you feel like you can go forever.”

But the Rangers like the flash he shows down the left wing, his strength off the puck and his zeal to pick the minds of Richards and Gaborik as if they were Bobby Orr.

Shorter shifts loom for Kreider, and possibly a seat in the press box when Hagelin returns for Game 6. It’s a much different scene for a wunderkind who went from dominating the Charlestown alleyways in stickball and street hockey as a tyke, to starring in rinks around Boxford Mass., to excelling as a remarkably gifted teen during a prep-school career at Phillips Andover, where he basically controlled the puck anytime he felt like it.

The NHL playoffs are a whole new animal. La Coupe Stanley is the most difficult trophy to obtain on these shores, two months of blood-dropping hits and needless goonery and action that’ll take your breath away. Imagine dropping from the sky into this mix. Imagine if the rookie who’s succeeded at everything else finds his place.